Common mistakes that (Almost) everyone makes in interior design

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It happens to everyone you are shopping and see the perfect home decor accessory. Immediately you think, oh! This will look perfect in my TV room.

What most of us don’t understand is that interior designing takes a very keen and knowledgeable eye. We may be out shopping and see something we love, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will look perfect in our home.  Interior designers in Lagos Nigeria understand how color, lighting, room size, scale, and placement all affect how items look in a room and dictates whether they will make or break a room design.

There are a lot of common mistakes that almost everyone makes when designing their home interiors. Here we look at the 10 most common mistakes and how to avoid making them by a top 10 interior designer in Nigeria

1) Scale in Interior Design

We love how Joy Yebovi Ofili explains scale and proportion in design when teaching her students at Simplinteriors School of interior design & Entrepreneurship she says, “When you enter into a room, it should be like a city scape …a combination of different heights. You never want everything in a room to be at the same level or the same size. Accomplish this with different heights/sizes in your furnishings, art placement and window treatments.”

Scale is the number one mistake that almost everyone makes when it comes to interior design. This is probably the case because it takes a talented eye to decorate a room with impeccable scale.  Some people put too many small things in a room, thereby cluttering the room and not giving the eye a place to land.

While others put too many large, bulky items in one room, making it look stuffed and small. The secret to proper scale is a mixture of different shapes, heights and sizes.  If there is only one thing that you hire an interior designer for, it is help with proportion and scale.  With the right scale your room is well on its way towards a successful design.

 

2) Shop Around and Budget Before Buying

We are all prone to impulse buying. It’s not to say that you shouldn’t buy something that you fall immediately in love with, but maybe just keep the receipt in case it doesn’t work the way you had originally thought.

Before heading to the furniture showroom, it’s best to have a plan and a budget well-established. First, your rooms need to be measured. The furniture placement and size need be planned properly so it is important you contact the interior design company (Simplinteriors & Décor) to measure the space before buying.

 

3) Ask for Help and Interior Design Advice

It can be difficult to spot our mistakes when we have been muddling over the same room design for months—sometimes a room needs a fresh set of eyes to spot the problems.

Ask for an honest opinion on color choice, fabrics, or room arrangement. Hire an interior designer for guidance or you can contact your classmate from interior design school like Simplinteriors School of Interior Design and Entrepreneurship as “Two head is better than one” because there are plenty of designers who charge by the hour though they have the complete skill and also interior designers are full of clever design tips and trick that can transform your home.

 

4) Arrangement of Accessories and Collections

We all have different collections.  Somehow it started with one little ceramic bird and now you have a collection of birds in various shapes sizes and colors that you have amassed over the years. What is the proper way to display a collection such as this?

Well, let’s start with the improper way, and the mistake that most of us make scattering pieces of the collection throughout your home. One little bird may be on the consol table, while another little bird somehow flew all the way over to perch on the coffee table.

No matter what the accessory is, it is best to display them in arrangements and groupings. There are some steadfast rules to arranging items into group like I taught my students at Simplinteriors School of Interior Design & Entrepreneurship as an experienced interior designer

5) Hanging Art

You can literally turn any wall of your home into your own personal art gallery. Everyone should display some form of art in their home—whether it is a rare oil painting or a cherished drawing from your child’s pre-school days. The road block that most encounter is how to properly hang art.

The best way to ensure there are no mistakes, and nasty nail holes to fill, is to trace and cut-out the frames outline on paper. Simply tape the paper cut-outs onto your wall, trying numerous placement options until you have the desired outcome.

Have fun with your arrangements, playing with size, color, and texture, remembering to avoid the number one mistake that most people make—scale (see number 1 above). 

6) Buy Fabrics and Textiles First

A common mistake that most of us are guilty of is while painting. First, Put that paint brush down! You need to pick out the rooms fabrics and main textiles, such as rugs and curtains.

Why is this? Because it is simply much easier to find fabrics that we love and then pick out paint to match. While it is much harder to find a fabric that we love, that also just so happens to match the paint we have already put on our walls.

So, with budget and room size in mind, go for a shopping excursion. Look through samples of fabrics, rugs, pillows etc… Find what you love and then once you are happy with your design choices, pick out a paint shade or shades from the chosen textiles. Now you can pick up the paint brush.

 

7) Add Character

While it is really fun to look through showrooms that are full of brand-new modern furnishings, don’t get carried away and buy everything at one time and one place.

Doing this result in a common interior design mistake—buying everything matchy-matchy, resulting in a home that lack character. How do we add character? Slowly, over time. It can take years to have your home fully complete and fully designed.

“Character is built within your interior design by adding that odd chair you found at the flea market or the amazing painting that a street vendor was selling” says a top interior designer in Nigeria. Try a small shopping excursion on the weekend, slowly over time you will find things you love and build your homes character.

 

8) Add a Focal Point

Every room needs a focal point it offers a place for the eye to rest and assigns a room with a function (Note: Larger rooms can have more than one focal point). This is a very common mistake—forgetting to give each room a purpose or point to focus on.

Some rooms are simple in a TV room the focal point usually ends up being the TV and the unit it is placed on, while all the other main objects in the room (i.e. couches/chairs) are focused and pointing towards the TV.

Other rooms are a bit more difficult, such as sitting rooms or dens. Don’t just scatter furnishings about the room— first, find a focus or purpose for the room, and then place the furnishings around that focal point. For a large painting, even a coffee table that encourages guests to sit and converse. 

As you have read, there are a lot of common mistakes that can be easily made when it comes to interior design. Luckily, there are also plenty of easy solutions to fix these mistakes—sometimes it’s as easy as getting rid of a hand-me-down that you hate but felt obligated to keep, while other times you may need to enlist the help and keen eye of a friend.

If all else fails and you are too frustrated with all the decorating decisions and obstacles that you face, then hire a professional interior designer (Joy Ofili Yebovi) they are knowledgeable and can help you achieve your dream home—without all the mistakes.

 

 

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